Glory of Heracles III & IV -Kai Sou Roku-

 

Review by · January 14, 2025

Well folks, here’s something I didn’t have on my 2025 bingo card: a Glory of Heracles III: Silence of the Gods and Glory of Heracles IV: Gift from the Gods orchestral music concert, all live recordings from September 2024, across three discs! These Super Famicom titles have never had official English language releases, but these RPGs from Data East had notoriety and some success during the 1990s. Fans of the series were treated to a six-disc box set in 2018 (Glory of Heracles Sound Chronicle) thanks to SuperSweep. Seven years later, SuperSweep has published this orchestral companion set entitled Glory of Heracles III & IV -Kai Sou Roku-. Note: “Kai Sou Roku” can be interpreted many ways, including “Reminiscences” as it appeared on the 1994 compilation album Glory of Heracles ~ Greece Reminiscences.

There is the concept of a kind of longing, a nostalgia for something you paradoxically have never known. “How can I miss that which I know nothing about?” Fancy words to describe this feeling include anemoia and desiderium. And this particular feeling is the first feeling I had when I started listening to this orchestral recording. The target audience is, of course, the people who played these SFC RPGs in their youth. Given I didn’t grow up in Japan, that’s not me. And while I have dabbled with these games thanks to fan translations, I do not have an especially strong attachment to the source material. It cannot hold a candle to my feelings about, say, the first six Final Fantasy titles.

Yet, when I listen to this album, the quality of the arrangements, performance, and recording give me the exact same nostalgia I get when listening to Falcom Neo Classic, Symphonic Suite Final Fantasy, or any of the early Dragon Quest symphonic suite albums. But then, I’ve played FF, DQ, and Ys, and my time playing those games enhances the feelings I have about the music. That’s why it is so shocking to me, this anemoia I have, wanting a childhood experience I’ll never get when I listen to these brand-new recordings in 2025. I can only imagine how exciting this recording must be for Glory of Heracles fans. While I know the music from past listening to their respective OSTs, I just don’t have that connection.

If I’m not making myself clear, what I want to get across is that this orchestral performance is so beautiful, so charming, and representative of something so lacking in the past 10-15 years of VGM arrangement, I already find myself loving it. Imagine how much more I would love it, then, if I also had an emotional connection, in my youth, to this music?

Much of what makes this set so good is the performing group themselves: MUSIC Engine. Founded in 2016 by accomplished violinist and arranger Kohta Kawai, this Japanese orchestral has hosted concerts featuring the work of many video games. However, up until now, their only published recordings have been for a set of Undertale albums, likely because Toby Fox has been so open and generous with performers who want to utilize his work. Thanks to SuperSweep, however, this particular concert got recorded and properly published, and I am beyond grateful that Kawai and his team had this opportunity. This may mean big things for the future, which I will explain more at the end of this review.

Looking at the track breakdown, the first disc is Glory of Heracles III and the latter discs are Glory of Heracles IV. Based on track times, it may have been barely feasible to fit all of the Glory of Heracles IV recordings onto one disc (combined time is just over 79 minutes). But, perhaps to play it safe, this release split the GoH IV section into two discs.

While the GoH III block is shorter, it might be my favorite. Or, perhaps, I was surprised by how much of an improvement there was from the source material in these arrangements. It’s not that these arrangements are particularly inventive. It truly is the difference between the inferior Super Famicom sound source and what’s happening here. Famously, Koichi Sugiyama would write the full symphonic orchestra score for his Dragon Quest compositions first, and then these tracks would get downgraded into synth for their video game form. I cannot help but wonder if the composers for GoH III & IV did something similar, only without ever recording an actual orchestral concert (until now).

I also appreciate how thorough this concert is. Take a look at the tracklist. Almost every track is a multi-movement piece, blending multiple melodic themes in groupings based on the game’s story or events. This, too, is similar to the structure for Dragon Quest symphonic albums. And, if you compare the song titles from this setlist to the full OSTs on Glory of Heracles Sound Chronicle, you notice that these are complete arrangements with the exception of some short jingles. Pretty much every melodic theme from these two games found its way into this concert.

Stylistically, that is quite a range to cover. Much of this music fits the kind of neo-classical orchestral game music we have heard in the albums I referenced for comparison. However, there are also long stretches of music that are decidedly a more aged sound style: renaissance-era folk dance music, Grecian modal scales to break from major/minor duality, and more that I don’t know how to classify. Movement eight for Glory of Heracles IV covers a lot of these bases, especially in “The Queen Passes Through”
and “Where the Sand Goes.” Some of these arrangements also lean into late romantic and early modern orchestral styles, and we even get big band jazz and a vocal ballad with a strong accompanying piano in the encore.

I have given this album four full listens, and I am finding more to love with each pass through. Everything about this music serves as a reminder of the kind of game music compositions that aren’t common or popular anymore. I miss this. I miss this feeling of discovering and re-discovering. And as I reflect on it all, maybe I am not missing anything after all because here I have found something new and wonderful.

As of this review’s publication, the SuperSweep store only lists this album for physical release. In time, let us hope they consider adding digital distribution and streaming! If not, I do recommend anyone who enjoyed any of the other albums I discussed (DQ symphonic, FF symphonic, Falcom Neo Classic, or even Symphony Ys) to make the effort to import this album. SuperSweep’s online store does not manage international orders, but retailers like CD Japan and Amazon Japan are likely to pick up some copies, and you can request this album through said retailers or directly through middleman services.

I am hopeful that this album makes waves. Why? Not only because MUSIC Engine did such an incredible job with it (this is an early contender for arranged album of the year) but because of their upcoming lineup of new performances. Their next big concert, scheduled for February 2025, is a 30th anniversary concert for Lufia II! Now there’s a SNES game for which many of us hold a number of fond memories! If Kohta Kawai and his team can do such a great job with Glory of Heracles, I have no doubt they’re going to nail it with Lufia. And yes, I would very much like to have that concert recorded and published as well!

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Patrick Gann

Patrick Gann

Therapist by day and gamer by night, Patrick has been offering semi-coherent ramblings about game music to RPGFan since its beginnings. From symphonic arrangements to rock bands to old-school synth OSTs, Patrick keeps the VGM pumping in his home, to the amusement and/or annoyance of his large family of humans and guinea pigs.